Back Up Regularly

My server died a little last night. I am glad that I back up the database when ever I add content or make a modification. I usually also back up the file system after working on the CSS or modifying any files. I was doing some maintenance and was about to upload an article when I refreshed the page and received an "internal server error"

I have been getting bad problems every night for the last few days around the same time so I waited and tried again.

"Connection refused"  WTF ?

FTP login , OK that works.

MySQL login, that works.

Upload a generic index.HTML file to the site then try to get to that by the browser... that works too.

FTP back in to delete the test file . "CONNECTION FAILED"

MySQL login, "Connection Refused"

Test browser "Internal server error"

Remain calm, go make a cup of tea....twiddle my thumbs.

I tried the FTP again, success, looked at the server log files and found two errors.

Premature end of script headers: php5.cgi

Premature end of script headers: index.php

FTP "CONNECTION LOST"

These are generic errors that don't really tell you much other than "your stuff isn't working", there are a variety of reasons for both errors, none of which I am able to fix.(I hadn't made any recent changes that could cause this to happen) Maybe the server is dying ?

3 hours later it's still bad, time to e-mail customer support. The customer service is quick honest and friendly. This is an excerpt from the response e-mail :

The server your site is hosted on is experiencing some rather high load fluctuations which is the reason your site is down. Dying does seem appropriate doesn't it? =) The admins are aware of the issue, are currently working on it and should have the problem sorted out shortly.

I can't fault them for their honesty or customer service. I am just glad I had my back ups in case it was a real drama. I woke up this morning and checked the site.

All good.